City council confirms new LAPD chief

Michel Moore was confirmed and sworn in Wednesday as the agency’s 57th chief

By Elizabeth Chou
Daily News, Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Michel Moore, who has held a variety of high-level positions during his nearly four-decade tenure at the Los Angeles Police Department, was confirmed and sworn in Wednesday as the agency’s 57th chief.

The council voted unanimously to confirm Moore, 57, to lead an organization of roughly 13,000 employees, more than 10,000 of whom are sworn officers, in the nation’s second-largest city.

Related article

Moore is succeeding Charlie Beck, who he described “as a mentor, friend and leader who has changed forever the course of the Los Angeles Police Department.”

He will be taking up the baton as the organization faces strained resources and is in need of an upgrade to its technological systems.

The agency’s officers are also grappling with the challenge of responding to the growth and spread of homelessness throughout the city.

The newly minted police chief, who first joined the LAPD in 1981, said he is getting ready to roll out more resources and plans to “transition (away) from legacy technologies that burden our people.”

Moore said that he will work to build trust within the department and to promote policing that is led by “compassion.”

“Each individual that we encounter, whether it be a victim, or an individual experiencing homelessness, or an offender, whatever their station in life,” Moore said, “they deserve the dignity of an individual. They deserve us to treat them professionally and compassionately.”

With his selection earlier this month by Mayor Eric Garcetti, and after Wednesday’s confirmation, Moore will be taking up a job he has long sought.

Moore had applied to be chief nine years ago and made it into the top three but ultimately lost out to Charlie Beck.

Moore, who had been the chief of the Valley Bureau, when he first tried for the job, has been entrusted with critical tasks in the intervening years. He has led bureaus in charge of counter-terrorism issues, the operation of LAPD jails and property, the department budget, communications, the training of personnel and the management of records.

Moore is the department’s expert in crime statistics, having led the LAPD’s weekly COMPSTAT command inspections.

He has also chaired the department’s use-of-force board, which examines police shootings and the use of other types of deadly or injurious force.

His highest post before being selected chief was as first assistant chief and director of the office of operations.

Councilman Mitch Englander, who chairs the Public Safety Committee which held a confirmation hearing earlier Wednesday, said he has known Moore and his family for about 16 years.

He praised Moore as “intelligent” and described his record with the LAPD as “unparalleled.”

“His accomplishments are phenomenal,” he said. “And what he’s done to help steer this, not just the department, but the city and the stakeholders and the direction of transparency and cooperative intelligent and compassionate policing will only help as he becomes the police chief.”